Electronic design automation (EDA) tools or applications are generally used by circuit developers to design integrated circuits (ICs). An IC may include many blocks of logic circuitry, registers, memory blocks, input/output (I/O) blocks, etc. These blocks may be configurable to perform different tasks. A generic routing or interconnection structure is typically used to connect the various blocks and circuitries within the IC in different ways. All these configurations are usually done using an EDA tool.
Designing an IC on an EDA tool generally includes, among others, synthesizing and translating the register transfer level (RTL) description of the circuit into a discrete netlist of logic-gate primitives, placing and routing the many components of the synthesized gate-level netlist, and analyzing and simulating the IC design. Various board level and signal integrity simulations are generally performed to model possible signal integrity issues such as ground bounce, cross talk, and simultaneously switching outputs (SSOs), etc. Different simulation models may be generated to allow the circuit designer to simulate the actual device with the EDA tool.
For example, Input/output Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) models are behavioral models that are used to simulate an input/output (I/O) buffer for signal integrity and/or timing. Generally speaking, IBIS models that cover typical process, voltage, and temperature conditions are pre-generated. However, as the configurability of I/Os in programmable devices continues to grow, the number of IBIS models required increases exponentially. Due to the increasingly large number of IBIS models required to cover different input and operating parameters in programmable devices, only a generic subset of IBIS models is provided. These generic models may not provide full-coverage for every possible I/O configuration.
Generally speaking, different settings and operating conditions, e.g., process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations, need to be taken into consideration in order to generate accurate IBIS models. However, due to the almost unlimited number of possible PVT variations and other operating conditions, only a limited number of IBIS models, based on a set of predefined operating conditions, can be pre-generated. Generating IBIS models is becoming increasingly time-consuming and the coverage that these models provide is steadily diminishing.